The Wilful Sunflower

Parliament was dissolved yesterday. State and federal elections will be held simultaneously on March 21.

As a general rule, I'm terribly apathetic about politics. When I was looking for a job, a newspaper company I applied to asked me to sit for a test. Of course I thought it would be all about grammar and writing essays but noooooo, among other things, they asked me to name the ministers in the various government ministries! Oh no!

Naturally, I, erm, made a lot of wild guesses, which, also naturally, didn't turn out quite correct. (Surprise, surprise.) I remember one of the two interviewers looking at my answer script, then looking at me, and saying deadpan: "You really need to improve your general knowledge." I squirmed inside, gulped, "I know," and wished I could sink into the floor. When that company called me a week later, I couldn't believe they were still offering me the job!

However, I chose to work at a different company, and it happened that Budget Day just happened to fall on the third day I was there. My bosses sent me to Parliament together with a team of seniors. I was given a list of names and told to wait for those people to come out of the House, to corner them and get their responses to the new Budget.

I looked at the list and didn't have a clue what most of those people looked like. It was enough to give anyone the shudders — my third day on the job and I was already having visions of messing up big-time! What to do? What to do? I trooped upstairs to the company library and asked the librarian to help me look for archived photos of each of the people on my list. Then I made mental notes such as, "Big ears, lots of wrinkles on his forehead"...

In the end, it wasn't so bad coz most of them wore name tags, and besides, all the important people were ambushed by other members of the press as soon as the MPs stepped out of the door. I didn't even have to ask any questions; everybody else yelled their questions, I merely stuck my hand with my tape recorder right under the poor guy's nose and recorded anything and everything he said! *phew*

Now, having to be involved in the elections (you can't get away from it if you work in the media, trust me) is again going to be a new experience for me. I might not be very interested in politics, but politicians' statements always have the power to amuse me.

Zam: Do not air interesting TV shows on polling day

Television stations have been asked not to air entertainment programmes that can keep viewers "glued" to their television sets on polling day, Utusan Malaysia (a Malay language newspaper) reported.

...

It said [Information Ministry adviser Datuk Zainuddin Maidin] also suggested that RTM (Radio Television Malaysia, the government's TV station) inform the public on the importance of choosing candidates based on the party and not the character of the individual.

"We want the people to understand that the candidate is not important because it is the party that will determine the future of the country," said Zainuddin.

Riiiiiiiight.